Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon speaks to supporters after winning the provincial election in Montreal on Oct. 5.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Trump effect
Re “Trump didn’t intimidate Canadians – he empowered Canadians” (Opinion, Oct. 10): Far from punishing allies, Donald Trump is doing Canada, NATO countries and Western Europe a big favour. What is happening to Western countries is the establishment of new alliances, new open markets and new friends.
Canada is most certainly finding new customers for products once sold to the United States in large quantities. Although it will take time, these new alliances should be strong and steadfast.
This leaves the U.S. in a quandary. Even once the Trump era is over and (hopefully) cooler heads prevail, previous suppliers will likely have no need for the U.S. market. New markets and alliances would not change; even if the U.S. needs our aluminum, for example, we would have none left to sell.
The shoe would be on the other foot, as the saying goes. God bless America may be apt as well.
Ted Parkinson Toronto
And the award goes to…
Re “A Nobel Prize for Mark Carney? Premature. Person of the Year award? Thumbs-up” (Oct. 8): Either honour would be a disaster for this country.
Mark Carney may well deserve Time Magazine’s Person of the Year award for 2026, but Donald Trump would go ballistic and likely lash out further against Canada. We don’t need to poke the bear at this time or incur his wrath.
Almost certainly, Mr. Carney will earn many prestigious awards in due course. Let’s get on quietly with building our economy, infrastructure and national pride.
Joyce Rowlands Toronto
I’m afraid I don’t agree when it comes to awarding Mark Carney Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
Under his watch, I believe the Canadian economy is in severe tank mode. However, if the award is given for ruinously pushing Canada’s total debt to $2.4-trillion and deficit to more than $110-billion, I wholeheartedly agree.
Nancy Marley-Clarke Cochrane, Alta.
Temperature check
Re “Canada is at risk of missing its emission goals, climate report says” (Report on Business, Oct. 8): The Canadian Climate Institute’s latest report confirms a dismal pattern: Canada has never met an emissions reduction target, remaining an outlier among G7 nations as the only country whose emissions rose.
While the new heat pump rebate program is a welcome step (“Ottawa to launch $2-billion heat pump rebate program early next year” – Report on Business, Oct. 9), its gains risk being erased as fossil fuel companies expand production capacity to fill a taxpayer-subsidized pipeline.
To turn the tide, provincial and federal leadership should act decisively. Halt the expansion of natural gas infrastructure in new subdivisions and mandate heat pumps instead. Simultaneously, clean up our power grid by ending our reliance on gas-fired “peaker” plants, which increasingly run continuously, and replacing them with cheap, clean renewables and battery storage.
If we hope to leave a liveable future for our children, stop building out pipelines and propping up unproven fossil fuel workarounds such as carbon capture. Invest in renewables and electrify everything in sight.
Ray Nakano Toronto
Most people’s response would be to call the government hypocrites. Research on climate hypocrisy offers a better approach: While the government is both trying to solve climate change and causing it, our lifestyles also involve contradictions due to the way society is structured, from gas-heated homes to an economy dependent on big projects.
Conversations should start by noticing this gap, rather than laying blame. Governments have backtracked, and that calls for scrutiny. But so too does our own reliance on fossil fuels.
A change in Canada would require collective action to close the gap.
Simisola Pelemo Priscilla Charlottetown
Prairie precedent
Re “The PQ is back in office without a lot of people power behind the next premier” (Oct. 7): People who love Canada may take comfort in the extreme narrowness of the Parti Québécois victory. They shouldn’t.
Here in Alberta, we’re getting a powerful lesson in how a party, once it gets its hands on power, has at its disposal the entire system of government, including taxpayer money, to pull strings and levers to get what it wants.
The referendum includes nine other questions that I would describe as anti-immigrant and anti-federal government. Each one basically presents an argument for why it should be answered in the affirmative.
The government has also launched a media campaign – a propaganda campaign, I’d call it – to persuade people to give it justification for making life more difficult for newcomers and trying to wrest more power from the federal government. This sort of thing has been called, astutely, “manufacturing consent.”
Let’s see how Paul St-Pierre Plamondon uses his grip on the reins of government to move public opinion in Quebec toward an approval of separation.
Frank Burgess Edmonton
Long memory
Re “Ontario cancer patient who was denied coverage for U.S. treatment dismayed by province’s revised rules” (Oct. 8): So the Ontario government shifts the administrative goalposts with respect to drug coverage and I believe essentially condemns a young man and father of two daughters to certain death.
Ontarians are a kind and compassionate people and come the next election should not forget this hateful act.
Alan Drummond MD, Perth, Ont.
Fight on
Re “Decades after her diagnosis, Adrienne Clarkson calls for better endometriosis care” (Oct. 6): I can offer a story of hope to Canadian women quietly suffering with endometriosis.
My story includes a misdiagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome and several trips to emergency over years of suffering. The final trip was in an ambulance and, on arrival, I insisted on being seen by an obstetrician/gynecologist. That doctor’s compassion and determination led to a diagnosis that still requires laparoscopic surgery today.
There should be better diagnostic options, better education for doctors and women and earlier detection to prevent infertility. My story continues as a mom of two great kids.
It was a worthy battle, but one that would have been unnecessary with the right investment in research and education.
Alison Pidskalny Calgary
Hear that?
Re “As hearing aid technology improves, issues of accessibility and stigma persist” (Oct. 6): It is beyond frustrating that those with hearing loss are denied access to low-cost solutions due to provincial government inaction, leaving them with no alternative but expensive traditional hearing aids.
For those with hearing loss who might be self-conscious about using such devices, Apple’s AirPod hearing technology, which is not available yet in the country, would allow them to appear no different from the myriad Canadians who walk the streets daily, talking on their phones or listening to music or podcasts.
Victor Nerenberg Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que.
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